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April 6, 2001/Nisan 13, 5761, Vol. 53, No.27
Arab violence brings Israeli doves and hawks together
DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - Six months into the Palestinian uprising, Israeli doves and hawks are no longer arguing about the nation's settlement policy. In fact, they are displaying a rare unity in the face of repeated Palestinian onslaughts.
Palestinian attacks in recent days on two settlement enclaves left two 10-month old Israeli babies among the victims - one dead, the other gravely wounded - but the attacks did not produce the once-familiar calls from the Israeli left to dismantle the settlements.
The first attack took place March 26, when a Palestinian sniper killed Shalhevet Pass, picking her off as her father wheeled her in a stroller by a Jewish playground in the West Bank city of Hebron.
On March 27, in the Atzmona community in the Gaza Strip, a 15-month-old infant was seriously injured after being hit by shrapnel in a Palestinian mortar attack on the settlement. The mother also was hurt, though less seriously than her child.
On March 28, Israeli doctors reported an "impressive" improvement following surgery in the condition of Ariel Yered, who had arrived at a local hospital without a discernible pulse.
The Pass family at first refused to bury Shalhevet until the Israel Defense Force seized the Palestinian neighborhood of Abu Sneineh from which the sniper fired. On April 1, following appeals from public figures including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the family laid Shalhevet to rest.
The initial refusal to bury Shalhevet triggered some controversy in Israel, but it was overshadowed by a deafening silence - the marked absence of debate that such attacks on the settlements once would have generated.
In times gone by, the attacks would have left Israeli doves demanding the dismantlement of isolated settlements - to avoid "provoking" Palestinian anger - and hawks urging that they be strengthened to show Palestinians that violence is futile.
Such debate now seems anachronistic.
Only a few doves still argue for withdrawing from any settlements, even the most isolated ones. They understand that appearing weak under fire would send the wrong message to the Palestinians and to the wider Arab world - that violence pays.
The hawks, barring the most extreme among them, no longer deny that outlying settlements, such as those in Gaza, would have to be removed if a peace agreement is reached.
But that presupposes a peace process. In its absence, there is little for the doves to get enthusiastic about or the hawks to argue over.
Both groups now roundly blame Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian leadership for the lack of a peaceful solution or of progress toward one, and for the spiraling violence that has claimed 72 Jewish lives since late September.
This "domestic peace" among the usually raucous Israeli parties has made Sharon's unity government much more than a marriage of political convenience.
For all the lingering unease on the left about Sharon's hardline past, there is a spirit of unity on the fear-swept streets of Israel's cities.
And this unity appears to be stiffening the public's resolve in the face of daily Palestinian suicide bombings, ambushes, stonings and firefights.
Israelis are determined to go about their business despite their apprehensions, not to give the terrorists a victory by disrupting normal life in the Jewish state.
When bombs do strike and blood is spilled, there seems to be a tougher and more stoic response than in years gone by, when Israeli society was divided between "the peace camp" and "the national camp" and every Palestinian terror attack widened the gulf between the two.
By the same token, Sharon's decisions on how to strike back at Palestinian violence - which in recent days have involved a marked military escalation on Israel's part - have encountered little resistance in the political center, though the right is clamoring for a sterner response.
Last Friday, Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer announced that Israel is ready to take off the gloves in the conflict with the Palestinians.
He also said he would consider sending Israeli troops into areas under Palestinian control "if they try to misuse territory which we agreed in advance was theirs."
On Sunday, the IDF crossed into an area under Palestinian Authority control and abducted six members of Arafat's Force 17 presidential guard, charging them with cooperating with Palestinian militants in planning terror attacks against Israelis.
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